Not Supposed To Die Today
by Tango Eight
Summary: "Nobody should have to go to work thinking, 'Oh, this is the place that I might die today.' An office is for not dying." - Michael Scott.


Author's Note: I am so nervous about this story because it deals with extremely dark subject matter for The Office. If that is not for you and you prefer happy stories that are more along the lines of what the show gives us than please don't continue reading! However, it does have a happy ending…I repeat…THERE IS NO CHARACTER DEATH but it is a close one so please don't continue reading if that is not your thing.

**Not Supposed To Die Today**

"_The office isn't a place where people come and think this is the place I'm gonna die today..."_

Michael Scott worried about the people who worked for him all the time. It was just his nature. He wanted everybody to be happy and safe, and he usually wanted to be the one to make it that way.

Usually even if he couldn't make them as happy as he would like they were still always safe.

That was, until the day they weren't.

It was a normal Tuesday at 9:30 in the morning. There was absolutely nothing special about that day that should make it stand out in people's minds.

Everybody was at their desks either answering phones or filling out paper work; some were even doing their usual-playing solitaire on their work computers. Jim was standing in front of Pam's reception desk. Both were busily planning ways to mess with Dwight.

"We could rearrange his desk so everything is on the opposite side." Pam said with a hint of playful mischief in her eyes.

"That's amateur Beasley, I expected more from you." Jim chided with mock disappointment.

Pam cleared her throat and put on her best fake serious face. "I apologize, it won't happen again." She couldn't help but smile, looking into his beautiful green eyes.

Jim smiled back, "Good, that's what I like to hear. Now, let's come up with a re-"He was cut off when the door slammed open with enough force to send the handle through the wall. Everyone jumped in their seats at the loud noise. Jim turned around quickly just as Dwight jumped out of his chair and Michael came hurdling out of his office.

"What the hell was that?" Michael asked, not seeing the person who had just come in.

What Jim saw made his heart skip a few beats and then start hammering in his chest. A man had just walked in wearing a black skiing mask pulled over his face and had a small gun in his hand. Jim instinctively put himself in between the armed man and Pam.

"WHERE IS MICHAEL SCOTT?" The man yelled! Jim could see the indecision on Michael's face as the arm man was looking around, trying to find him. Nobody breathed, everything was completely silent.

"I'm Michael Scott." Michael practically whispered. Jim was completely shocked, he never expected Michael to actually step up in a situation like this. Dwight started edging his way toward Michael, loyal as ever to protect his boss.

"You made my boss make me fire one of my top employees, now you are going to lose one of your employees unless Dunder Mifflin agrees to pay me one million dollars."

With that the armed man swung around so that he was pointing the gun at Jim's head.

"What's it going to be?" The man said. Everyone took a step forward, willing the man to lower the gun and not shoot Jim. Michael looked terrified, Jim thought to himself as he looked over at Michael and Dwight. He could feel Pam standing behind him, the fear practically pouring off of her.

"Don't shoot him." Michael said knowing Dunder Mifflin didn't even have one million dollars but the fact that this man was apparently willing to murder someone simply because they had to fire an employee clearly proved the man's insanity. This was no time for jokes, no time for wisecracks and most certainly no time to let him know that Dunder Mifflin didn't have one million dollars.

The man smirked, readjusted his aim, and then fired.

There was a collective cry of denial when the pistol was fired. Jim felt something slam into his stomach; it caused him to stumble back into Pam's desk. He heard her voice call his name but his ears were ringing because of how loud the gun had been when it went off. It sounded like he was at one end of a tunnel and she was at the other.

He couldn't hear anything but he could tell that the man with the gun was yelling in the direction of the rest of the office. Jim's legs felt weird and they started to give away. Jim felt his back sliding down the front of Pam's desk until he was sitting on the ground, his back leaning against the wood. His stomach felt weird so he lifted his hand and pressed down. It made his hand feel wet so he pulled it away and looked down at it. His hand was bright red; it was practically glistening in the fluorescent lights. His right hand went back to his stomach and he felt a smaller one grab onto the left. He looked up to see Pam's terrified green eyes staring into his. He saw the man with the gun walking over to the main entrance, lock the door and then go into Michael's office. He looked around and could see that everyone was on the ground next to their desks, all sending worried glances his way. His eyes moved back to Pam's.

"P-Pam?" He asked, the word coming out choppy. He realized his breathing was weird; it jumped when he tried to inhale and it was ragged when he would exhale.

"Jim!" She said in a hushed whisper, he could hear tears in her voice and noticed that they were filling her eyes.

Jim gasped as he finally felt the pain pulsing through his gut. It started at the central point in his stomach where the wound was and the pulsed out in waves to the rest of his body. He could feel the blood gushing out of his abdomen like a waterfall and it made him nauseous to the point of where he thought that if he moved he would most likely throw up all over Pam and that just wasn't an acceptable thing to do to the girl that you loved.

Pam could see the intense pain in Jim's eyes and the tears fell down her cheeks. "Just hold on, okay, we're gonna get you some help. Just hold on." Jim felt her hand tighten in his and squeezed back.

Just then Michael and Dwight came over to them in a poor attempt at a military crawl. When they reached the couple they pulled themselves up into a kneeling position.

Dwight put his hands over Jim's and pressed down, hard. Jim cried out, his eyes squeezing shut against the pain, sweat poured down his faces. His breathing staggered as he tried to get his lungs to cooperate.

"I'm sorry," Dwight told him, not meeting Jim's eyes as they looked at his 'worst enemy' with confusion. Dwight was helping him almost as if he was his friend. And then Jim realized that Dwight was his friend, he had always been his friend, and they just had a really weird way of showing it.

Dwight couldn't help but stare at the red stain rapidly growing on Jim's previously white shirt. His hands were over Jim's right one as they worked together to stop the blood flow. Dwight hadn't realized it until now, until seeing him this hurt, that Jim was actually his friend; maybe his best friend, besides Michael of course. They pulled pranks on each other and generally tried to make the others' life miserable but no matter what, Jim was there for him. The time that stood out the most was when Angela's cat died, or rather Dwight accidently killed Angela's cat. He was so devastated over losing her but Jim was there, making him feel better. They had a limit to their practical jokes and that limit separated them from being hateful towards each other to being friends.

Dwight could feel the shudders raking his friend's lanky frame. Jim was ghostly pale, sweating and shivering uncontrollably. He was going into shock.

"We need to get him lying flat and we need to elevate his legs above his heart to prevent him from going further into shock." Dwight told Pam and Michael. Pam was crying but nodded her head in agreement.

"Jim?" She asked, tentatively, "Can you hear me?" Jim groaned but opened his hazy green eyes, looking directly into Pam's.

"He…Hear you…" He said, his teeth chattering as his chest rose and fell in an uneven pattern.

"Good, you've gotta stay with us. Can you lie down?" She asked. Jim nodded and tried to slide down the front of the desk but he obviously needed help.

Pam, Dwight and Michael helped him maneuver his body until he was lying supine. Michael and Dwight took off their suit coats and balled them up, putting them under Jim's legs. Jim's upper body was now in Pam's lap; Dwight kept his hands firmly into Jim's side.

Jim was fading; it was a new and terrifying feeling. He could feel Pam's knees digging into his back and he lay across her lap, he could feel Dwight's hands over his pressing down seemingly harder than necessary and he could feel the piercing agony flitting across his torso in electric waves. He could feel all of that but he felt completely out of the situation. As if it were already a memory, or worse, like he was watching this happen from somewhere other than within his body.

Jim couldn't help the groan that escaped. Pam was rocking him back and forth, hugging him around his shoulders, her head resting on top of his. He could feel her tears falling onto his head. She was shhing him, trying to calm him down as ragged groans of pain forced their way through clenched teeth as the pain magnified tenfold.

"P…Pa-mmmm…" Jim stuttered as his mouth filled with a metallic substance.

"Shh… You're going to be okay," She whispered in his ear. "Don't talk now, focus on breathing, okay?"

Jim couldn't breathe, though. The blood was making that impossible. He couldn't even talk now. He gagged, his body twisting to the side out of Pam's arms as the blood poured out of his mouth.

"Oh, God!" Michael shouted and Pam sobbed harder, pulling Jim back into her lap. His breathing was worse now, she noticed as his eyelids fluttered.

"Stay awake, Jim, please don't leave me! I love you, Jim! Please, I love you!" Jim found the strength deep within himself to ward off the darkness for a little bit longer. His breathing seemed to calm down, almost to the point of not even being there at all. He looked into Pam's eyes with a look of wonder.

"I….I lo-love…you t…." Suddenly his head fell back, his chest fell and his eyes remained fixed on a point past Pam's head.

"NOOO!" Pam screamed with so much pain she couldn't bear it. Her hands found his face as she pleaded. Michael and Dwight, along with everyone else couldn't help but stare in shock, their own pain buried behind Pam's.

"Pam, you have to move out of the way!" Dwight shouted at the hysterical receptionist, reaching over to feel Jim's neck, there was still a pulse but so faint it almost didn't count as one.

Pam did as she was told, laying Jim's upper body on the ground. Dwight moved to the side of his body and began compressions, counting as he pushed the blood through Jim's body, a task his heart was incapable of at the moment.

When he reached thirty he nodded to Pam who tilted Jim's head back, pinched his nose closed and blew two breathes into his lungs. After she was done, Dwight continued with the compressions.

After three rounds, Dwight was thinking the worst. Just then, the police barged into the room. Neither Dwight nor Pam paid attention to that, though. They were too busy performing CPR on Jim.

Paramedics were soon to follow, the call coming in from Vance Refrigeration stating gunshots were heard.

They immediately took over. Pam was still sobbing, Dwight had tears streaming down his face as well and Michael was in shock, not sure what was happening anymore.

Pam watched with clouded vision as the paramedics attached Jim to a portable defibrillator and looked away when Jim's body reacted to the shock. All she could do was listen as they shouted instructions to each other and shocked him two more times. She looked again when they announced they got him back.

"I'm going with him!" Pam announced as they placed his body on a stretcher, they nodded and she mindlessly followed them down the stairs and into the back of the ambulance.

As soon as she was sitting, she grabbed onto Jim's hand. She couldn't stop staring at his face. He was pale, with a layer of sweat making his hair stick to his forehead. What she couldn't stop staring at was the blood.

She didn't and couldn't keep up with anything that was happening nor could she keep track of time. She didn't realize when the ambulance arrived at the hospital, or when the paramedics and doctors whisked Jim away into the hospital, or when someone put a blanket over her shoulders and led her into the waiting area, or how long it was before everyone else showed up with horror stricken looks on their faces because of what they had just experienced.

She could see Michael and Dwight sitting on the other side of the room with blood stains on their clothing and she could see Meredith and Oscar and Phyllis staring at her clothing that had a lot more blood on it than Michael and Dwight's combined.

Pam had no idea how long she sat in that chair, at one point a nurse gave her some scrubs to change into. She didn't remember going to the bathroom to change into them but she had because now she was wearing them. Michael and Dwight had also changed at some point.

It didn't seem to matter. Nothing seemed to matter at that point.

Eventually, a doctor in similar scrubs to her own walked into the room. Pam didn't hear the explanation that allowed them to hear the prognosis but she didn't care.

"The bullet lacerated his liver and broke two ribs on his right side. We had to remove part of his liver but he will be able to live without it. The good news is he is breathing on his own at this point and resting comfortably in the recovery room."

Finally, the world made sense again, not a lot, but enough for Pam to be able to comprehend, well, anything.

"Mrs. Halpert, if you follow me I will take you to your husband's room. We will allow you to sit with him until he wakes up which should be within the hour."

The doctor started walking away and Pam could only look at her in confusion. Mrs. Halpert? Husband? She and Jim had just barely started dating? What was she talking about?

She looked at Michael who gave her a small smile. "You two are practically married to each other, anyway. You have been for a long time; you couldn't fool any of us." Pam looked around at the rest of her co-workers who were nodding in agreement. "He's going to need you more than anything when he wakes up and you deserve to be there."

Pam's eyes filled with tears again but this time it was because of how grateful she was to everyone at that moment.

The dysfunctional office had proved that they were much more than that, today. They were a family brought together by near tragedy.

"Thank you." Pam told them, her voice shaking as she turned around a followed the doctor to Jim's room.

She sat down on the hard, plastic chair near the side of his bed and grasped his hand, being careful of the tubes running from the back of it to a machine nearby.

That's how Pam stayed until she felt Jim's hand twitch in her own. She stood up and looked at his face, waiting for another sign that he was coming to. She smiled when his eyes fluttered open and she was actually looking into his beautiful eyes that she thought she would never see again.

"Hey," She said, a tear falling from her cheeks and landing on his thin hospital gown.

"H-hey," Jim rasped back, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Y-you kn-know," Jim's voice sounded so rough so she tried to quiet him but he needed her to know what he was trying to say. "I…thin-think we sho…should go….with yo-your prank after a-all."

Pam could help the laugh that shook her entire being. Her Jim was back, and she was never going to let him go.

**The End**

Author's Note: I hope you liked it! I started this story like a year ago and just barely finished it so I am pretty proud of myself! Also, let me know if you want a sequel dealing with Jim's recovery and the aftermath of such a traumatic experience. Thank You!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


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